Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Here's a photo of part of my studio floor this last weekend. Several pieces in progress, two with jack rabbits. Click images for a closer look.

I forgot to get a good shot of the large white crow in the foreground of that photo. That was stage 1 of a piece that's yammering at me when I'm not working on it. Below is stage 2. Stage 3 starts color - hopefully tomorrow.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

The weather was miraculously cool and breezy this weekend. Yesterday I spent time getting this jack rabbit drawn the way I wanted, and I meant to start painting it today, but it seemed stupid to spend this kind of weather indoors. So I packed up sketching supplies and a folding chair and headed north.

I recalled that I loved the area by the river in Danville, VA, and there was a lot of aging red brick. This is what I found, with the sketch below it. Sketching is more a way of seeing, for me, than it is a way to produce finished artwork. To some extent it doesn't matter to me if I finish a sketch, as long as I'm done looking. The sketch below was about an hour of looking. 9 x 12 inches. Pen and watercolor.

On the way back to Hillsborough on NC 86 you pass Yanceyville, and I stopped because I recalled the courthouse (Caswell County's) is a beauty. I forgot just what a confection it is - practically wedding cake beautiful. I spent over an hour in the shade of a crepe myrtle in full bloom drawing it, then had to go. Below the photo of the courthouse is the sketch. I took an extra minute at the end and quickly drew in my car, which was the only vehicle in front of the courthouse on Sunday around 5:00 PM. 14 x 17 inch Strathmore sketch pad - pencil.

It was a gloriously sun-filled day, with some additional exploring of Danville between the two sketches. More on that, perhaps, in a separate post.